Day In The Life

On Wednesday, February 8, I followed along with Ali Edwards to capture "A Day In The Life". Things have changed quite a bit around here since completing Week In The Life back in September, so I thought it would be fun to look back and note what's gotten easier and what's gotten more difficult, how much the kids have grown and what our schedule is like now versus then. I just ordered my Project Life plastics on Friday, so I haven't started my book yet, but knew I wanted to add this project in an 81/2x11, 9 pocket page protector. I added 18 photos taken throughout the day and also printed out the daily journal pages from Ali's blog to fill out throughout the day as well.  Here is what the pages will look like:

*note* I still have to print the photos onto 81/2x11 photo paper and cut them to add them to the page protectors. Some of the photos will be switched around a little.

1. Having my morning coffee, checking email, facebook

2. Jeremy's getting ready for work

3. Saying goodbye to the kids.

4. Reading blogs still drinking my coffee

5. Breakfast for the baby

6. Hudson's ongoing obsession with shoes, especially daddy's shoes

7. Harper pulling my hair...her favorite thing right now...not so much fun for me.

8. Hudson taking pictures of me taking pictures of him.

9. Harper's nap time.

10. Hudson enjoying some Little Einsteins

11. My Project Life core kit and binder came in the mail! Yay!

12. An afternoon nap for Harper and some snuggle time for mommy.

13. Finally getting around to folding some laundry.

14. Taking a bath after dinner. I had a nasty headache.

15. BBQ chicken salads that Jeremy picked up from Panera. Delicious!

16. Play time with daddy.

17. About to feed Harper and put her to bed for the night.

18. Jeremy and I watching one of our favorite Wednesday night shows.

It was a VERY typical day around our house. Perfect for what I hoped to document with this project. It will be a nice addition to my Project Life, which by the way, has gotten so big this year that some of the new shipments that arrived at amazon.com on Friday sold out within hours! Craziness. I'm glad I got mine! I also talked my friend Kari into jumping on the PL bandwagon ( Hi Kar!). I hope she likes it as much as I do!

Show & Tell: For The Photographer

*Update*
This post is way late considering Christmas was almost 2 months ago, but I wanted to share with you a few camera related gifts that I received. I'm so loving all of them!

1. Jo Totes rose camera bag
I had the hardest time deciding on a color, but most importantly, I just REALLY needed a camera bag. Showing up to a photo shoot without a proper camera bag for all your lens=embarrassing and totally not cool. Anyway, I ended up choosing the mustard colored bag and am so glad I did. It's a great semi-neutral color that I really can't see myself getting sick of anytime soon, which is something I was worried about with the other colors on my list.

 I totally dig the inside with the black and white houndstooth.

2. Handmade Camera Strap 

I really wanted a pretty camera strap to match my bag and my sister ended up getting me this one from here. I love the bright colors and pattern.

3. Fujifilm Instax Mini 7s

I had been pining after these cameras for almost a year, but now I finally have my own. I had it saved on amazon.com just waiting for it to go on sale. Right before Christmas the price dropped from $95.99 down to $87 (I think it was even more a while ago), so I called my mom and she ordered it for me! Yay! Only now I see that the price has dropped significantly since then down to $65.95! I wonder if they are coming out with a new model or something. Now the 25 is $83.95 down from $125.99! Ugh...why couldn't it have been that cheap when I got mine!! Sigh. Maybe that just means I'll have to get that one too! He he! I really adore the one I got though. I think it will be tons of fun to add these little polaroids to my Project Life!

*Here is what the photos look like:

It's actually a little clearer in person. This was taken inside, so it's a little dark too. I haven't taken any photos with it outside yet, but I'm sure those turn out much clearer. I'm looking forward to taking vacation photos with it.



So there you have it! It was a very camera heavy Christmas this year. Just what I wanted!

I'm kind of interested in those magnetic lens for the iPhone. Has anyone tried them or have some? I would love to know if they're worth getting.

A Blizzard

Yes. Winter finally arrived last weekend. Boo. I didn't get to get out of the house much because it was snowing like crazy on Saturday. I'm not a big fan of snow, but it was gorgeous! It was that really wet snow that sticks to everything it lands on, so it covered all the trees and bushes in a blanket of white. The best part about all the snow was that Hudson finally got to use his new snow pants and snow boots that my parents bought him back in October. He also got to build his first snowman and go sledding for the first time...it was only down a tiny little slope on the side of our house, but he loved it!

Here is my handsome boy all bundled up and ready to go.

And I finally got to get a few pictures of Harper in the snow too. She is wearing an old fleece snowsuit given to me by my sister back when Hudson was a baby. I thought about buying her a new, cute pink one, but it's been so warm here, I wasn't sure when she would get to wear it. This one worked fine and matched her cute hat. She was laughing and trying to catch the falling snow in her mouth. It was adorable!

It was so bright out because of all the light reflecting off the snow, so you can't see where the snowman ends and the snow on the yard begins.

Here are Hudson and daddy on the sled.

I'm hoping to bet back to work on all our projects this weekend. We are for sure painting the nursery. And I'm going to try to get Harper's little artwork finished. I think I have a new plan for it now though, so we'll see how it turns out.

P.S. I'm joining Ali Edwards for Day In The Life today. I love a reason to take lots of pictures...not like I need one though! If you would like to join in, click on Ali's name and it will take you to the blog post and a download freebie! So awesome!

The Simple Things

This week I'm linking up for The Simple Things @ Simple As That.

Pumpkins!

Week In The Life Project

I learned about Ali Edwards blog through Becky Higgins and that's where I discovered her follow along project called Week In The Life. It's a week long journal and photography project documenting everyday life at that moment in time. Ali has been doing it for a few years along with her followers and her books are just awesome when she's done. This year she did it in the summer for the first time, but I discovered her blog a week after she completed her week, so I couldn't follow along with her this time. Instead I decided to pick a week in the Fall to do mine. I just started yesterday and let me tell you, it's a lot of work (as she mentions on her blog), but I can already tell it will be so worth it in the end when my book is complete. I think it will be fun to be able to look back someday and see just what exactly we were doing around here all day everyday! Since it will be a little while before I can show you my finished project, I thought I'd share with you some pics from Ali's blog:



All of these images are from Ali's 2011 Week In The Life.  They can be found by clicking here along with a great video about the process.

Ali's books are all really beautiful. I love the layouts and colors that she chose for this year's book. I can only hope mine will turn out to be half of what her's are! She is such an inspiration!

Her blog is great too! She shares all kinds of great, photography, project ideas and inspiration. You should go and check it out. You'll love it!

http://aliedwards.com/blog/

She also shares a list of all the product information on there as well, so you know where you can find all the supplies she used.

Photography Class

I recently took a photography class that I purchased off groupon.com.  The class was supposed to teach us how to take better pictures of kids, however, the instructor didn't even really talk much about photographing kids at all.  The main lesson of the class was how to better use your camera by using it on the manual setting.  I hadn't really taught myself much about that yet, so the class was extremely helpful in that aspect. But I'm glad I only paid $50 instead of $200, because it wasn't worth $200!  Here are just a few of the pictures I've taken since learning how to use the manual setting:

I'm really excited that I'm learning so much and loving all the great pictures I'm able to take now!

Practice Makes Perfect

I've been taking my new camera everywhere with me with the hopes that I can sneak in some practice at a moments notice.  I'm learning all the settings and what I like best.  It's so much fun!  Soon I would like to start shooting some of my friend's kids to get the feel for that a little more.

Harper's 1st Zoo Trip

Hudson on his new bike

Hudson and me taking a dip in my parents hottub.

 Jeremy and Hudson doing some rock climbing at Falls Park in Sioux Falls.

He just woke up from a nap and actually let me get some shots of his little ouchie on his nose.

My beautiful baby girl.

Just look at those eyelashes would ya?!

Camera Practice

My little niece was born last week, so we've been busy with that and preparing for our own baby to arrive.  I took a chance and traveled the 1 1/2 to my hometown to see my sister's family and their new addition and to check out all of the flooding, which incidentally has gotten much worse since we were there last Saturday.  Both of these gave me the opportunity to practice with my new camera!  I was so excited to take pictures of baby Emersyn!

 She is wearing one of the onesie stickers that I got for her.  It's so cute!

Here are a few of the flooding.

This is a picture of a restaurant and hotel located right along the river.  It now has water all around it.

 Here is a huge group of people volunteering filling sandbags to build a wall around the YWCA which is also located along the river.

 A shot of the bridge joining Nebraska and Iowa.  The river is usually much, much lower.

 Here is another hotel and restaurant located on the Nebraska side of the Missouri.  It has a huge wall built around it to help keep water out.

I took this picture of the Nebraska side while driving back to Omaha on I-29.

We couldn't even get to the really flooded areas because they are closed to passersby, but if you'd like to see more, there are tons of photos posted online by all the local media.

I'm loving my new camera so much and am taking tons of pictures everyday, but we've been so busy preparing for the baby that I haven't had a chance to get them on the computer yet.  And we are finally making some really design plans for the nursery...I know, I know...we're really behind, but since she'll be sleeping in our room for the first few months I'm okay with that.